JUNO Hoops 2011 kicks off the week-long JUNO Awards. Held at Ryerson University's Kerr Hall, this first-ever celebrity basketball game was in support of MusiCounts - Canada’s national music education charity associated with CARAS. We brought a bag of Cheetos, sandwiches and our choice of bevvies to the game that promised to be spectacular owing to the presence of some really pumped up players that include three-time World champion and Olympic double gold medalist sprinter Donovan Bailey and Roy Rana and Charles Kissi, head coaches of the Ryerson Rams men’s and women’s Ryerson varsity basketball teams.
The celeb list included Max Kerman, lead singer of The Arkells; J.E. Skeets & Tas Melas, co-hosts of The Basketball Jones Show on The Score; DJ Future the Prince (Drake’s official tour DJ); and Skratch Bastid, first-ever DJ to be nominated for a Juno Award (Producer of the Year, 2008); R&B star Ray Robinson; former professional player and UMAC president, Will Strickland; 2007 Juno Reggae Award nominee, Trinity Chris; award-winning spoken word poet, Dwayne Morgan; DJ D.O.C.; media personality Devo Brown; Michael Grange, and mas band leader Dwayne Pitt.. Additionally, Tanya Kim, etalk Anchor, is one of two honourary guest coaches for Juno Hoops. Toronto Raptors game-day host and hype man, Mark Strong, and renowned urban music producer/promoter Kid Kut were entertaining and really made the night. A game isn't a game without some snarky remarks, and the media teams present had a blast recording what they had to say.
For a random Monday night, JUNO Hoops was a good game played, and a nice change from previous JUNO launches.
Check out more photos here. JUNO Hoops 2011